A FORMER Huddersfield University student held by the US at Guantanamo Bay has been severely tortured, two High Court judges were told.

Omar Deghayes, 37, remains exposed to a risk of further ill-treatment at the detention facility in Cuba, it was said.

The court is being asked to order Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to press for the release of Mr Deghayes and two other British residents.

The Government has maintained they have no legal right to help because they are foreign nationals.

Timothy Otty, for the three, described the `distress' the men's families were having to endure.

He asked Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Tugendhat, sitting in London, to say Mr Straw's refusal to call for their release was `legally unsustainable'.

Mr Deghayes, who was on a law practice course at Huddersfield University in 1998, was detained in Pakistan.

His name was said to be on the FBI's `most wanted' list, but his legal team say the photo in his file was of someone else.

His lawyers say Mr Deghayes has been made virtually blind in one eye by the use of pepper spray and the gouging of his eye during his detention.

Yet he was still being constantly subjected to high light levels, they said.

Mr Otty added: "The situation at Guantanamo Bay has been roundly condemned, even before the allegations of torture and the wealth of material supporting those allegations entered the public domain."

The hearing continues.